The Kushog Prairie

What we did

17

native species

1

planting area

May 2024

installed

1,920 plants across 17 native species, installed in 15 blocks of 10×10 ft on the 1,500 sq ft leach bed. Bonus stock at installation included Ohio Speedwort (a substitution from the grower) and four Green-headed Coneflowers tucked into slightly wetter microsites near the driveway and toward the lake.

Planting areas: Sunny Prairie — Leach Bed

The Design

The constraint stack — full sun, dry sandy soil, septic restrictions, browse pressure — pointed to a dry prairie community. From there, three design moves shaped the planting.

First, two layers instead of three. Standard naturalistic design uses matrix, structural, and vignette layers; the structural layer (shrubs and large grasses) was omitted because most structural plants have root systems incompatible with leach bed function. The garden is built from a groundcover matrix (60 percent of plants) and a vignette layer of forbs (40 percent).

Second, density. 1,920 plants across 1,500 square feet — roughly 1.28 plants per square foot. Wherever bare ground exists, something will grow. Dense planting ensures the something is the chosen community rather than opportunistic weeds. The investment isn't in 1,920 plants; it's in weed exclusion through competition.

Third, block repetition. The garden was laid out in fifteen 10×10 ft blocks, each containing the same plant palette in consistent positions. This creates the visual repetition — the drift effect — that gives naturalistic plantings their cohesion, while making installation systematic.